#its like if everyone does then rather it them than me...

[crystalconfusions]

this was how it was for me. my life became 1000% better when i became an adult and got to control my own life for the most part.

when you are a kid/teen you have to put up with a lot of people controlling your life even in the most minor ways. although this is somewhat necessary - kids cant really live on their own and shouldnt have to be responsible for things - it really does suck in a lot of ways, especially if you are in shitty situations that you cant escape or change because you are a kid perpetually at the whims of others.

i remember clearly thinking when i was 8 or so watching my parents get into another argument, 'i have to last for 10 more years until its done'. at the time it seemed endless, like it would never happen. my parents werent abusive, but i grew up with them constantly arguing, and with a brother who had a lot of untreated problems that he took out on all of us. having to watch all of this and live at the whims of everyone's emotional outbursts, walking on eggshells all the time, really stressed me beyond belief. and even without that, it just sucked ass having to go to school for 8 hours a day, have to take a set list of subjects, have 2-4 hours of homework a day, and then do it all again the next day on and on and on for years on end. when i got to college, away from my family, away from the people in high school that made me feel like shit, where i could choose the subjects i wanted to take and when i would have classes -- it was like an entirely different life. suddenly my mental health improved dramatically. i used to have no motivation or passions, but i got a chance to explore what i was interested in, and joined several clubs in college. i started hobbies that i still continue to this day. i suddenly controlled my own life, and the things that i once hated or felt indifferent/apathetic about became interesting or tolerable to me.

now i've been out of college for 2 years, and i'm still doing well. i feel like i get along better with my family now that i live at a distance from them, or rather, now that i have established boundaries with them and can distance myself when necessary. my mental health is extremely stable and pretty healthy, even when something bad happens i can deal with it in a much better way than i could back then. i can control what i do, do things on a whim if i want within reason, and generally can live freely inasmuch as anyone in our society can live freely. this isn't how it is for everyone, but its worth a shot. if you can keep going, like i did when i first thought about those 10 years, there is a good chance that things will improve a lot for you. so its worth a shot.

I get to be more free as an adult than I ever did as a child and I think more kids need to know that. as a high schooler part of what made my depression so bad was being told over and over again that it was the most carefree time of my life. while I was trapped in an abusive home + amongst bullies at school + in a body that wasn’t right for me. opportunities to be carefree don’t end when you turn 18. you can be more you than ever as an adult and that’s such a gift. I know ‘it can get better’ is an annoying thing to see over and over when you’re as trapped as I was back then. and I know that if you’re still a kid you deserve to be free right this second. but it can and will get better and this is not where life stops being interesting. promise

[starsart1]

Look, I know it’s perfectly okay to have negative or sad feelings about something you love but does anyone find the recent attitude towards Bunnydoll really depressing? Like you can’t go on YouTube, Tumblr, or TikTok without people claiming the ship is over and all of that.

Like, I understand that their fate may be rocky but everyone’s acting like it’s over after episode 5 when that episode actually revealed SO MUCH MORE of them and actual lore behind their relationship. They went in on their thoughts of each other, genuine concern and care over each other’s feelings, and hinted history. Yes, it involved angst and bickering, but their relationship is actually much more deep after this episode and I feel like tons of people are overlooking that aspect. It’s not always just love and hate. That’s what makes the show feel so human. Even if their dynamic doesn’t go in a perfect and healthy direction (trust me, only Gangle and Zooble are perfectly safe), it doesn’t mean that fans should look down on what they or others enjoy so much. I’m not saying they can’t have concerns or not so optimistic opinions about Jax and Ragatha’s dynamic, but it also doesn’t mean that they should simply view them as something worse than what’s actually there. You should allow yourself to enjoy both positive and negative aspects of the things you love.

I feel like after episode 5, people tend to put Pomni and Jax’s dynamic at a much healthier pedestal while putting Ragatha and Jax at a much more pessimistic pedestal than before, despite both of their dynamics not being as innocent, awful, or black-and-white as some may assume. Goose has also described Pomni and Jax’s dynamic as messy, meaning it isn’t just sunshine and rainbows either because every character dynamic is realistic and has its ups and downs. Hot take but episode 5 actually improved Ragatha and Jax’s dynamic’s overall chemistry and depth, rather than deteriorating what was there.

[cainrising]

Hey! I come to you with a prompt : role reversal choscar where Oscar starts lowkey flirting with everyone and its only then that Charles realises what he's like

this took me an age because my sleep schedule has been ABYSMAL these past few days and ive been unable to get anything done, but! sub 2k drabble of role reversal choscar ^^ i feel like i barely complied w this prompt but 😭 my brain got stuck on this, and this is all i have to offer

19. role reversal, additionally: magical realism

"Mate," Lando whispers. Charles has never heard a man sound so viscerally frightened. "What the fuck is wrong with him."

The ‘him’ in question being, of course, Oscar, who for once is not trying to meld with the wall, but is instead smack in the centre of the dance floor, moving like—

Charles doesn’t have the words to describe it. The cognitive dissonance is crippling. His eyes are telling him yes, that is indeed Oscar, pressed back to chest with a stranger, flushed face alight with delight, but Charles’ head is—well. His head isn’t telling him anything. It’s too busy blowing itself up.

Without looking, he fumbles for his drink. Ends up pouring ice cubes into his lap, because he’s a fucking idiot who finished it ten minutes ago when he first saw Oscar grinding on some random woman and consequently forgot everything else. Charles is so far past caring; he scoops the ice cubes up and shoves them into his mouth.

Desperate for something to focus on that isn’t—whatever ill-timed awakening is happening in his nuclear reactor of a brain, Charles clasps his condensation-slick empty glass and asks Lando, a little thinly, over the dizzying thump of music, "How long will this hex last, do you know?"

Hexes are far from a foreign concept. Charles has had his fair share of experiences, some better than others, as have most drivers on the grid. This, however…

Max got hit with a jinx that only allowed him to speak in meows, and even that was easier for Charles to wrap his head around then Oscar under the effect of a personality curse.

“Do I look like his mother?” Lando snipes distractedly, craning his neck to peer into the writhing mass of bodies, where Oscar—and his latest partner—have been swallowed entirely.

Charles tugs at his collar. It’s already unbuttoned halfway down his chest. Still, he’s overheating, almost feverish. Sweating like he does when he’s ill and fighting off an infection. Not too dissimilar of a comparison, Charles thinks, faintly. Except this time, he’s fighting off ill-timed attraction to his colleague in the middle of a sweltering Miami club, and his only moral support comes in the form of Lando, who is too busy having a different sort of breakdown to be of any use at all.

“The witch at McLaren said—” Lando says, leaning towards Charles without turning. Unable to lip-read, Charles has no hope of understanding him. He pokes Lando’s shoulder, gestures to his ear when Lando glances over, and Lando obligingly shouts, “The witch said it’s only 24 hours! So he’s got, like—seven left!”

Oh, thank god.  

“Ayy, cabrón!”

Charles swivels around. Carlos is leaning over the back of their booth, a wild, wide glint in his eyes. He looks, quite frankly, like he’s been rolling in the hay with a rabid tiger. Sweaty and rumpled in the skewed sapphire lighting, perspiration gathering in the hollow of his throat. Charles empathetically relates; he, too, is sweating enough to fill a swimming pool.

Whatever Carlos says is lost beneath a swelling cheer as the music changes, and it’s rather cinematic, how the crowd opens up again, and Charles’ gaze wanders without him really meaning for it to. A big mistake. A dire, unreversible mistake.

His breath leaves him, in a pathetic, croaky rush, all at once.

“Oh, what the fuck,” Lando whimpers, aghast, and—yeah. Yes. That.

Neon lights pouring everywhere, splintering against martini glasses washed up on the frays of the crowd, and cradled within it all, haloed, Oscar’s head is tipped back, alcohol dripping down his throat as some girl licks her shot straight off him.

“Er,” Carlos says, after a stunned moment. Lando rubs the side of his eye with his palm. He looks like a traffic light. Charles can’t tell if he’s about to explode, throw up, or faint. “Something has happened to Oscar, I think.”

“Do you,” Lando says dully. “What on Earth could’ve given you that idea, I wonder."

Charles is one stiff breeze away from making things very awkward.

He seizes his glass in a fit of desperation, and just barely manages to garble, “Drink. Going. Now.”

Carlos calls after him, confused, but Charles is already long gone.

--

It’s cooler away from the pit of body heat and the awful stickiness of leather seating. Charles pushes his hair off his forehead, tugging repeatedly at his collar, tries to fan himself. The bartender, a harried, young-looking woman, is serving a cluster of gentlemen at the far-left end. Charles collapses, elbow-first, onto the bar, and blows out a long, long breath.

He isn’t quite sure what it is. Never in his life has Charles thought twice about Oscar beyond the narrow lens of competition. They had their adoption joke, a year back in Monaco, they’ve played padel together a few times—Oscar has even met Leo, during one of his excursions to the paddock—but it’s this that has thrown the doors wide open. Made the floodgates burst. The dam break. Whatever metaphor: the result is the same.

A behavioural hex, focused on flipping personality traits, the doctor at the medical centre patiently explained to Charles. So Oscar’s usual calm temperament would be overtaken by recklessness, maybe even brashness. His quiet confidence would steadily become louder. He may be quicker to anger. It’s nothing to worry about, the doctor clarified. The hex has such a short duration, and the root of it is so harmless, there’s no point wasting hours crafting the cure. Oscar will be back to normal in no time. It’s a matter of waiting it out.

It's a matter of waiting it out, Charles thinks, repeats. This is all it is. Harmless. So harmless. The most harmless. Oscar acting like the star performer at a Magic Mike show won’t kill him, or Charles. Hopefully.

“Sorry for making you wait so long, sir,” the bartender hastily grabs a glass. “What can I get for you?”

Charles drags up a warm smile. He asks for another of what he had earlier, though, privately, he wonders if it’ll be strong enough to get him through the night. Officially, Lando, as Oscar’s teammate, is on chaperone duty, but because Charles is the one that noticed the hex in the first place, Lando insisted he stuck around. Charles doesn’t quite get the logic, but Lando promised to lend him his Porsche Carrera for the month, and needless to say, Charles immediately cancelled dinner with Lewis. Guiltily, he thinks again, sorry, Lewis.

As his drink is slid over to him, Charles wraps a hand around the stem and reaches into his back pocket for his wallet.

But somebody else gets there first; a card is pressed to the reader, and Charles jerks to protest, mouth opening—

“This one’s on me,” Oscar says.

He is—very close. Charles can feel the heat radiating from him. Can smell the layered amalgamation of bitter perfume and sharp cologne and sterile vodka, and beneath it all, euphoria. Lit up technicolour, the straight line of his nose, slash of his cheekbone, and Oscar’s eyes, wide open.

Charles had never noticed before; always, Oscar has this tired, half-lidded look about him. Calm, maybe. Brief bursts of animation before he droops back to baseline.

Oscar slips his card back into his pocket. He glances over Charles, mouth tugging upwards, before he easily pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, eyes sliding back to the bartender. He looks, Charles thinks, with an odd squirm in his throat, devastatingly alive. He looks unreal.

“Do you mind if I try some?” Oscar asks, head ducking down. His breath is hot on the cartilage of Charles’ ear.

Charles bites around a shiver. Makes a pitched, agreeable noise. Maybe another drink wasn’t a good idea.

Definitely not a good idea, he corrects, as—helpless to stop himself—his eyes drift to watch as Oscar leans a hip against the stool and takes a swig. His lashes flutter over his rosy cheekbones. Charles feels insane with it. Feels like he might be going crazy, because the valley of Oscar’s throat is smooth and long and thick, and it’s still glimmering sticky, and so badly, Charles wants to sway forward and taste. Restless, wants to know if Oscar’s pulse would throb against his lips, if it would be hummingbird fast. If he would be steady, even in this, or unravelled.

Maybe his first drink was spiked, Charles reasons hysterically. Maybe he’s not actually drooling over his nice, polite coworker. Maybe he just really needs to get laid. It has been a while since he and Alex broke up, after all. This is merely—a spell. A phase. He has this all under control.

“It’s good,” Oscar decides, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I thought it might be.” Oscar’s eyes are blown and black. He licks along his lip, scrapes the crystal remnants of sugar off with his teeth. “You’ve always had good taste.”

Charles does not have this all under control.

“Yes,” he says, strangled. Abort, abort. “I like, um. Sweet things.”

Oscar blinks. His damp hair flops over his forehead when he tilts it, and it looks casual, when he idly slumps to rest his chin on his palm, but it certainly doesn’t feel it. Charles can’t shake this idea that he’s locked in a cage with a—a panther, or a jaguar, or just—some sort of beast, and it’s finally deigned to notice him, even though this whole time, Charles has made no secret of himself.

This is Oscar, Charles furiously reminds himself. He’s a giant teddy bear. He doesn’t flirt and unbutton the top four buttons on his shirt, and he certainly doesn’t let strangers spill their shots over him.

Usually, Charles realises, with dread. Usually, Oscar doesn’t do that. Oscar under a hex—Charles doesn’t know who he is.

“That’s funny,” Oscar comments. There is this drag in his voice, like he’s playing with his food. His eyelashes are long as he looks up at Charles. “I also like sweet things.”

Charles squeaks, “Um?”

Maybe he’s having a stroke. Miami is hot, of course, and Charles’ vision is undulating, and his tongue feels useless and stupid, and he can barely feel his limbs, and that’s a stroke, isn’t it? Does he need a defibrillator? CPR? A lobotomy?

Lando. He needs Lando to call him an ambulance. Right now.

“Booth,” Charles blurts, taking a hasty step back. “I need to get back to. The booth. With Carlos. And Lando.”

He doesn’t catch Oscar’s response. There’s so many people surrounding the bar, idling, chatting, bopping their heads to the bass. It’s beyond a mild inconvenience. Charles is bathed in unbearable heat, so many conflicting scents, but superimposed over them all is Oscar. An exhilarated, non-insignificant part of him feels like prey. Or—not exactly. A carnivore staring into the looming void of a bigger predator and learning, for the first time, what it is to fear.

The worst part about it, Charles thinks, is that he fucking loves it. He’s never felt so frightened, nor so alive.

He finds a gap and goes for it, is almost into the thick of the crowd, halfway to the booth, when someone catches him by the waist. Charles knows who it is before he even turns—sharp-sweet-ecstasy. A very bad idea. Maybe the best he’s had in a long time.

“Charles,” Oscar says warmly. His touch is blazing. “Are you forgetting something?”

Is it really so wrong to bear attraction for someone who wears a familiar face, but acts in unfamiliar ways? If you think about it, can he truly be Oscar, if what’s inside is flipped and wrong?

And even if it is wrong, Charles thinks, even if it is wrong—

It is very tiring, to be good all the time.

[aetherograph]

I just rewatched Hunchback of Notre Dame the other day and that movie was the first one where Disney tried to make the bad guy a Bad Abusive Person and not a highly exagerrated fun campy Villain; but also I noticed that movie has both the prototype for what became the All Antagonists Must Be Realistically Abusive And We're Pulling Out All The Stops To Try And Stop People Thinking They're Hot (Frollo) AND ALSO has a Villain Villain (Clopin).

Both of them have songs! Both of them are antagonists! But Frollo is this new type of antagonist they were trying out (that took off), while Clopin is absolutely the older type of FUN Disney Villain, he's also one of the first morally ambiguous antagonists in that his "villainous" actions are highly theatrical but also Reasonable, PLUS he's the one telling the story, so he's ALSO serving as the narrator. Clopin is one of the few Narrators in Disney canon, and kind of the only character of his kind that had ever been done before OR since! There's a reason the girlies went crazy about him (we did).

"But he is gonna kill Quasi and Phoebus for no reason, Esmerelda gave them permission AND a token to prove they were invited" Um no he DOES have a reason and it's The Bit, something @moniquill pointed out to me.

I think it's funny that for the most part the Disney Villain repeatedly failed to put villainfuckers off. I think it's sad that they even spent so much energy trying, even up into turkeys like Home on the Range, there's still something Sexy about pretty much every hand-drawn Disney Villain ever to SOMEBODY. There's a huge contingent of villainfuckers for the 3d ones too but I'm just talking about 2d animated villains.

After Dr Facilier, the only character I would truly call a Disney Villain that we got after that was Bill Cipher. After that, it's like OP said, we either had sympathetic villains, abusers (only for older kids and adults apparently), or no villains at all (yuck. Even as a little kid I hated those type of shows. So did everyone I knew, see: the universal hatred of Barney).

We haven't had another what I consider Disney Villain since Bill Cipher; they've all been the new type that's too realistic and too much An Abuser to truly be a Villain. Villains have some panache, some dramatic flair, some joy in being nasty. Professor Ratigan woke up one day and decided to drown widows and orphans. Ursula keeps her victims in a little coral garden to gloat over. Bill will re-arrange all the holes in your face just because. Like there's that flair, you know, that joy in being evil. They know they're evil, they don't think they're in the right, who needs to be in the right? That's why I love them so much more than the "sympathetic" villains that to me are never very sympathetic at all, or the hamfisted allegories, or the comically one-dimensional abusers.

The final fight on the clocktower between Ratigan and Basil scared me just enough to be fun. Clayton so laser focussed on killing Tarzan that he ignored how he was getting vines wrapped around his neck scared me just enough to be fun. But mostly? Seeing the villain fall or die of their own hubris was satisfying, the way watching Odysseus fail and fail and fail because of his own hubris is satisfying. Yeah! You're supposed to fail if you're arrogant! That's the Rules! But it's just as fun to watch them succeed just a little bit, and be horrible for a little bit. That's fun too! Because it's a taboo, and because we know that in the end they'll get a little too up themselves and ignore any warnings about that ledge, or push away the hand that tries to keep them from falling.

On the other side of the coin, sometimes the villain was who you rooted for, as an outcast yourself, because the heroes were just upholding the status quo that was bullies and abuse and stuff. I personally find this most in small screen rather than big screen. I don't know if its just that stuff I was into or what, but stuff like Batman I was always into the villains, and on their side too! Poison Ivy did nothing wrong! Inque is just trying to get a paycheque! Batman helps cops! Etc. etc. people have gone on about "we get shown the villain being bullied and the heroes do nothing to address that they just bully the villain more" a lot, and I feel sometimes like the "well here's a sympathetic villain who joins the heroes" crowd misses the damn point. I don't WANT the villain to have to turn hero to be rewarded, let them be bad! Let them have a continuing relationship with the protagonists and commit to whatever ideals they are both fighting for. There's a real conversation to be had about what values various writers don't think about before writing stuff (see: The Ponies in Friendship is Magic Are Super Racist), but let that conversation happen.

I think a lot of showrunners and execs are too reactive to fandom, and that's kind of what got us where we are re villains. I think there's a huge problem of the people MAKING shows/films thinking there's a way they CAN control fans, thinking they have a RIGHT to control fans, and focussing way way too much on fandom shit generally. Leave the Fourth Wall alone. You cannot prevent people wanting to fuck that character. You cannot prevent Fetish Fuel happening bc ANYTHING can be a fetish. You cannot stop human nature because you're personally not in agreement with it. Stop trying. Leave it alone. Make the show and ignore the fandom.

...And I also think there's something to be said that most of what we all consider the Best Disney Villains were all creations of a Gay Theatre Kid from Baltimore.

the biggest loss of animated movies trending towards sympathetic villains/no villains is that we dont get enough crazy death scenes anymore. stuff like tarzan's villain accidentally hanging himself or help i'm a fish's villain drowning and floating away silently on screen. sometimes your movies just need stuff to scare 8 year olds shitless. its good for the enviroment i think. probably.

[fawnbong]

"Her Majesty" - Ramshackle

Stone x Reader

Platonic and romantic separately

Headcanons

Hi this is probably super ooc because I take info from like 2014 as fact even tho it's absolutely not atp but anyways I haven't written anything stone centered in a minute so I wanted to get this out

I'll do more for the others soon too trusttt

-ˋˏ-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

PLEASE have the Beatles song in mind regarding the weird title it came to me at 4 am

There are totally a lot of bits and notes I've forgotten to delete and I'm like really aware of that I just don't want to go through allat again it's too long so have fun sorry

Platonic

Stone isn't very social at all. He's reserved and grumpy and actually comes off as just plain mean to anyone that doesn't know him well enough, and unfortunately, his "shell" also takes a very long time to crack (or shed on its own). With enough time— lots of it— trust is surely built and as long as you're not as rambunctious and annoying as he finds Vinnie, you'll probably get along fine.

He doesn't typically delve head first into relationships. Where Skipp is optimistic and eager to make a new friend, Stone is skeptical and cold. Vinnie is somewhere in the middle but typically leans towards friendly and stern I imagine. Stone takes a really long time to open up in the slightest, and an even longer time to ever consider you a genuine friend. It's not like he doesn't care about your well-being for that extensive period, he actually subconsciously looks out for you the way he does his "actual friends" long before he even begins liking you.

Each member of the trio can be labeled a "mom friend" in their own ways, in their own fonts. Stone is dead silent about his concern and care. He's the most levelheaded and logical, despite being in a drunken state most of the time. On the very rare occasion he is sober, he's capable of being sentimental (and a little more outright with his concerns) and abnormally anxious. He may fret over your concerning lifestyle (in silence), and offer supplies or simply a shoulder to lean on (also in silence).

Even if he's already downed three bottles of "mystery liquid" (energy drink), he'll always share an umbrella during heavy downpour, saying it's because he'd rather you didn't get sick and infect everyone else with your germs.

[Personally] I imagine him being the most organized out of the group. He's always been tidy and neat, regardless of where he's been in life. Maybe it's a rich person habit he'll never be able to quite shake off. While everyone else kicks off their shoes and haphazardly abandons hats and gloves at the entrance of the shared tent, he stays behind for half a minute to set the shoes off to the side and straighten them out, and hang everything that must be hung whether it's damp or just in the way, all while grumbling about the mess.

Abnormally skinny and I'm tired of pretending it's normal GO EAT SOMETHING TWIGGY!!!! (Reword laters) He's built like an actual street lamp, and it's all thanks to his low appetite and picky eating tendencies towards food found on the streets. It's not like he wants to starve— God knows he should take everything he can get— he just doesn't. He's cold, lanky, and possibly anemic + malnourished because of it. It's clear to everyone and probably worries you. You're told it's "just how he is" but regardless, you encourage him to eat a little more and take better care of himself. Not like he's a toddler, or to be demeaning— just out of care and concern. He finds it annoying at first and absolutely disregards it, buuut your intentions are acknowledged and he returns the favor in his own ways.

Grumpy emo with a soft spot™. He loves dogs and tolerates children (one "child", actually: Maggot). Figure this out later I don't know where I'm going. It kind of gives you a little more to work with other than that emo, nonchalant drunk face he puts on— and possibly a smidge of hope as well. He's not totally devoid of emotion and happiness. Rather, he's quite gentle and has a lot of feelings, he just drinks them away. Probably expresses his desire to own a lot of dogs to you and then never mentions it again.

Unwilling to play his fiddle in front of a crowd. He's tried before (busking on the street, with enough persuasion from the group), but the moment a small crowd began to gather before his performance, he fumbled and froze up before running off, totally abandoning the money he'd just earned. He took that as a lesson to never perform like, ever again. If you ask super nicely with a million cherries on top, he'll say no. If you ask really nicely with a million cherries on top as someone he considered a friend, he says he'll think about it. He much prefers playing alone, far away from prying ears, but he can find it in himself to make an exception for you and put on a small, personal show if you're willing to listen. He's nervous the whole time, and desperately hopes you think he's good even though his expression is fairly bleak.

Not necessarily protective (like at all), but he does want to know your whereabouts whenever you plan on splitting off from the group. He says he'd rather not have to assemble a search party for you, but truthfully he just doesn't want to see a friend get hurt. Similarly, he's got a pretty weak stomach but can treat any wounds you have with shocking care. He mumbles about how you're reckless and stupid, all while holding back the urge to gag and groan, but gets the job done and urges you to be careful for a while. It'd be almost normal, if it isn't for the unfamiliar tone of his voice; quiet and low, worried and possibly a tiny bit pleading. Very nice.

Romantic

Not affectionate. Not sentimental. He's civil and fairly passive and assumes that's all you need. He'll never comply if you're hugging him just to hug him, but if you approach him for something to physically ground you during a particularly difficult time, he'll awkwardly reciprocate. He's terrible at all that touchy-feely stuff, but he tries. It's rare he ever seeks you out for anything like that ever, but he may accept it on rare occasions. Just small touches and reassuring squeezes where he clearly needs it.

He's actually a pretty solid friend. He's not really mean without reason, just reserved and very grumpy all the time. Never communicates just how much he cares about you (and his other friends), but he absolutely does.

Coming back to the whole "Stone is the most organized in the group" thing mentioned above—he absolutely takes an extra five seconds to make sure your stuff is absolutely where it should be/where he knows you like it and, as silly as it is, lines your shoes up next to his for no good reason besides just wanting to. Maybe he just wants to be closer to you in a physical sense, though it's a bit awkward for him, so might as well let your shoes be together or something idk lmao

Oh no

Again, Stone isn't very big on relationships. Romance is foreign to him and he honestly doesn't really care much for it. But when it comes to you, it's different. Now he cares, finds himself craving it, even. He probably tries to convince himself it's a temporary state or that you're really gross or something so it goes away, but it doesn't. So, he drinks more to hopefully drown them out. That only makes things worse and leads to a pathetic drunken attempt at a confession and him purging behind a building moments later. He probably doesn't remember it by the following morning but he wakes up your boyfriend so that's cool or something idk and he absolutely faces teasing from his friends (mainly Vinnie)

I think navigating a relationship with him specifically is a slow, kind of awkward (in a cute way??) process. He's unfamiliar with it and doesn't want to royally screw everything up, so at first it feels like not much has changed. He walks a little closer, looks at you a lot, leaves flowers from rich peoples' yards on your pillow with no explanation or message (but his fingertips have been pricked and slightly bloodied from picking off the thorns so you can tell it's him), and that's about it at first.

He's a very "quiet lover", if that makes sense. He prefers secluded, peaceful areas for "dates" and isn't very big on loud or grand gestures or displays of affection. He's a little more willing to play his violin for/with you, still off somewhere more private and quiet. Again, he hopes he's impressing you.

He tries so, so hard to be stereotypically romantic and sweep you off your feet, but he just can't. He'd like to be all gentleman-y and throw his tattered jacket on a puddle for you to walk over, but instead he miraculously gets tangled up in the process of removing it and you just step around the puddle anyway. He gets insanely embarrassed. He wants to win you over with flirty pick-up lines, but they never quite land and he tends to trail off before finishing them completely. Either way, the effort is there.

He does, however, give you clever, oddly sweet nicknames in Gaelic (Irish? Irish Gaelic?). He'd rather gut himself on the spot than translate for you, though. He tells you to go find a dictionary and translate it yourself, but he sincerely hopes you never take him seriously and do it. I think with enough pressing and prodding he'll crack and begrudgingly tell you, maybe even teach you some other phrases for fun.

Not very touchy feely, and better expresses himself through subtle, caring gestures and, if he feels bold enough, a couple mumbles about how much he adored and appreciates you (worded poorly). Though, he may occasionally find himself reaching for your hand or the side of your face in an uncharacteristically tender manner. It's rare and sometimes he quickly pulls away as if he immediately regrets his decision, but it helps communicate for him when his voice falls short.

You're good at reading him and vice versa. He's pretty stone-faced most of the time, but his body language and drinking habits give him away. Likewise, he can't help but sneak a few glances, which kind of helps him gauge every shift in your expression. He's quick to leave if something's visibly making you upset or uncomfortable. Big fan of the "Irish goodbye" and leaves quietly without fuss. He'd rather go without a huge, messy ordeal, but he is capable of fending for himself and probably you as well if totally needed. He's always armed with a glass bottle, after all.

You make him not want to drink his feelings away, because the feelings you give him are good feelings, which probably improves his state of mind ever so slightly. He's better at forming proper thoughts and sentences when it's just the two of you in some secluded, dingy alleyway away from the noise of the town. He'd have a lot of trouble when it comes to opening up, even well into a stable relationship, but trust that he does want to be vulnerable and honest, he just has a hard time. Definitely values and appreciates your patience and support, above anything.

It's abnormal how often he goes to Vinnie and Skipp for advice, asking about your favorite foods, flowers, spots to visit, songs, etc... He probably knows you better than they do but he still wants to know. They (Vinnie) probably give kind of bad advice, and the good advice he fails to carry out properly, but the effort is so visible it's still sweet and kind of really funny.

Still not very affectionate, nor is he big on PDA. He'd probably be just a tiny bit more open to things like hand holding, hugs, kisses, and sleeping closer together, but is still kind of off-put by it all. While asleep, he probably has a hand on your arm or drapes somewhere over your midsection, and occasionally pulls you an inch closer. It's probably unintentional idk ask him yourself and he denies it in the morning but it's still funny

Feels jealousy to a minimal/normal degree. Doesn't really care about what you do or who you talk to (though he's reasonably skeptical of anyone he doesn't know well, as he was with you), as long as nobody's being weird or aggressive. In the case somebody is being weird or aggressive, he's quick to shut down the interaction and leave, preferably without hassle. I think if he ever got violent without a nearby weapon he'd get his ass handed to him. Not really "possessive" or whatever I don't think

After a particularly rough day (as in lots of running and hiding and maybe fighting), he insists on taking a quick minute of his time to just observe you in silence. He doesn't tell you, and tries not to make himself known, rather he just stands there staring at you— your face, arms, clothes, hair, eyes— he actually just wants to look at you but he also wants to make sure you haven't unknowingly been injured.

Kisses you but only on private and on very rare occasions. He prefers his breath and clothing doesn't reek of alcohol/Monster when he does, so he's usually actually sober whenever he does. Idk I just felt that was important to share thanks

A/N: haha hi I've been a camp counselor all week and now I know how to shipoopie

Yeah I didn't take this one too seriously because idk quantity > quality ig but I hope this works?? This is mostly just stone being pathetic tbh sorry

[opens-up-4-nobody]

Charlie Kelly from Always Sunny is my favorite representation of dyslexia in anything ever. Specifically because everyone's frustration when his dyslexia gets in their way feels very true to my frustration when my dyslexia gets in my way. I like watching people get mad at dyslexia lol

[kick-a-long]

Ooh this argument pisses me off.

If I understand what you’re saying, there is a tier system to being a Jew, which is self defeating and shitty on its face, but practically suicidal, especially considering the emphasis it puts on just the religious aspect which most Jews in the west, ie half Jews globally, do not pass muster.

First, we sink and swim together. My secular ass is not protected by forces that will attack only the religious. The evil coming for you in temple is coming for me in my living room and only luck will divide our fates.

It’s an attitude I’ve seen my whole life where Jews rank “how jewish are you, really?” It’s shitty and breaks up community which should withstand variance in opinion and background because there are so few of us left. No I didn’t go to jewish summer camp or have a childhood temple but the real question should be am I here to defend and support the jewish community in the different ways it exists? Do I know enough about the functional structure of being Jewish in the world to know when bullshit is afoot? Am I jewish enough to be Jewish? Am I ever going to not be a Jew? These are much more important questions than my relationship with Judaism as a religion or a culture.

Second, obviously a dna test doesn’t make you Jewish but it can make you a target of antisemitism and that isn’t nothing. People who look jewish or have jew-y last names get a beating for it. We should be including rather than excluding them because like it or not being attacked for being Jewish is part of the jewish diaspora experience and imo it makes you uniquely qualified to understand parts of the Jewish community. No test tells you that, and plenty of dipshits use the “I’m .2% jewish so I can speak on this!” But don’t hand wave away every non jew because they might know something that you don’t. (If I had a nickel for every Israeli that doesn’t “get” the diaspora experience…

There is no tier system, it’s a binary. There is information and participation but nothing makes a Jew not Jewish or a non Jew a Jew (except for converting which brings up all kinds of exceptions I don’t care about.)

Third, excluding community as a no true Scotsman argument is SUCH A SELF DEFEATING ideology at a time when a community is on the defense from serious mass violence. No one gets an ivory tower surrounded by a moat. Shit heads have big mouths, even the Jewish ones, to exclude them from being as Jewish as X Jews because they suck or aren’t sticking to the PR or they didnt grow up immersed in the culture (which many MANY Jews don’t because it’s a very discriminated against culture and not everyone wants to believe that stigma is inescapable) sends a pretty strong message that it’s Everyman for himself when the chips are down. “The real Jews will protect their own based on vibes.”

This culture of packing and cracking in marginal communities is what the internet does. It’s why women, lgbt, and black rights are in shambles compared to the pre internet age. It’s more personally fulfilling because you don’t have to include Jews that just woke up to the danger, don’t know shit, that didn’t think “Jews” included them. the Jews that don’t know Jack shit other than they didn’t celebrate Christmas and their aunts used funny words. But you shouldn’t start down that road because the concept will creep into rewarding extremism, exceptionalism, and rejecting good for a future perfect that never materializes. Plus it self selects for the biggest, loudest, self righteous, narcissistic assholes you can imagine.

Let people speak on what they know. Even with authority over more Jewish Jews. It’s proper intellectual hygiene. Defeat their arguments on their merits not their heritage.

But that’s just my opinion.

just like there’s a different between religiously and ethnically jewish, there’s a different between 1.) not Jewish but has jewish ancestry, 2.) raised jewish but is non religious, and 3.) raised jewish and is religious.

people who are jewish ethnically but have never touched the culture, the religion, or the people are never going to have the authority to speak for the jewish community. you’re jewish. but you cannot possibly speak for jews bc you have never lived a jewish experience. you can reconnect if you want, but you need that experience under your belt to be educated on and understand the community’s struggles and needs.

so when goyim say “jews want this” or “jews agree with that”, and the majority of jews they’re speaking of got closest to jewishness when they read their ancestry results, they’re not using an example of the community. they’re using the jews that agree with them bc the only jews that agree with them have never lived a jewish life. and i think that says a lot about their views.

jews know this, but apparently it needs to be said repeatedly.

[banished-away]

artemis and dahlia are so good. the contrast between the supposed hero drizzt always keeping her at an arm's lenght, preferring the "soft look" she puts on to please him where she acts and looks softer and covers her tattoos and scars, knowing she had a painful past but not bothering to ask or look into it because it would shake his morals and he would rather pretend to not know than to actually confront it or even help dahlia through it. meanwhile the supposedly cold killer artemis with just a few looks saw the pain in her, let her have the kill against herzgo because he realized it was important to her even if he had just as good reasons and he didnt know dahlia's yet, and when they were alone he let dahlia be vulnerable to him, asked her about her pain, and when she was not comfortable to speak about it he just stayed near her and comforted her

[grossdyke]

sorry to say but barty + the rosier twins are in love and i’ve thought about nothing else since yesterday

[gazemaizeisdead]

despite the parallels in terms of cultural dominance, the proper comparison to undertale isn't homestuck, it's problem sleuth. (whether deltarune will live up to homestuck expectations remains to be seen but so far other than the first episode which was meh (not unlike Act 1 and 2!) i'm rather confident it will)

having replayed undertale recently, it actually is as good as the hype says. undertale mechanically is meh but as a story, as an experience, it's so fucking tight! UT sets itself apart from the crowd by really, really caring about the player's time. there's so little filler in UT (i suspect this is partially a natural byproduct of having a one-man dev team), it has the cadence and rhythm of a well-rehearsed standup routine. at a normal pace an hour into a regular pacifist run has the player already into hotland, where they've already been exposed to more clever humor, music, and lore than the first twenty hours of an average jrpg. there's criticism to be had towards UT and DR but they are also some of the only videogame-adjacent things that I can describe as "actually consistently funny" and if you are able to do this, as it turns out, you can get away with a lot in an arena where the average gamer's idea of funny videogame is borderlands 2

The game really does expect you to play it both ways, genocide and pacifist, which makes all its smarmy fourth-wall accusatory statements in genocide seem pretty hollow and pathetic in the end, no?

does it? UT came off to me as a game that really did account for player choice, in the way that different people could have wildly different experiences playing it; there are a few lines in the genocide run that actively make fun of people who are watching it on youtube or through a streamer instead of doing it themselves! all the monsters in the game say pls don't murder me and if you murder them they go wtf why did you murder me, what's wrong with you, why is that swarmy? just don't murder those guys if you don't want to get the don't murder lecture by the don't murder lecture skeleton, it's not that deep man. i think the addition of all the "neutral" endings makes UT feel a lot more cohesive and real than say, bioshock (where it is a true binary situation). i like that you can kill everyone except papyrus and a dog and then everybody still thinks you're an asshole but, you know, they throw their hands up and say what are you gonna do. it's good shit.

by all accounts a Genocide run is a tedious, boring, and grindy slog that mandates you systematically root out and kill every generic enemy, with the only reward being two good and challenging boss fights.

remember that the genocide run was intended to essentially be an irl creepypasta secret run and i think it accomplishes that perfectly! a full genocide run is about three hours; yes, there's grinding, but no more than i think is necessary to make the point the game is trying to.

You've written extensively on Homestuck and its various progeny, I was wondering what your thoughts are on Undertale and Deltarune? In terms of exposure and cultural grip they seem to have eclipsed their forebears while retaining some of its DNA. Both works seem to, while eschewing some core Hussie-isms, retain an experimental mindset to their respective media as well as an interest in grappling with metanarrative topics.

I've only played Undertale, not Deltarune. On top of that, the last time I played Undertale was shortly after it came out, in 2015 or 2016. On top of THAT, I only played Undertale once, doing a pacifist run.

When I played Undertale in 2015, I loved it. It definitely "feels" Homestuck; it's as much as a spiritual successor to Homestuck you could ever get, created by Andrew Hussie's direct acolyte. You have the same humor, the same metafictional style, and the same music (sometimes literally the same music, in the case of Megalovania). There was a time where I would have counted it among my top 10 video games, a very prestigious list that otherwise consists of Final Fantasy 6, Cave Story, and 7 Nintendo games. (Actually Elden Ring is probably in that top 10 now, so I'm slightly more diversified.)

My interest in it has cooled significantly since then, though. Undertale has the same issue nearly all games with a moral choice element have, which is that they are only really interesting to play at the extremes (i.e., full good or full evil), and on top of that, by all accounts a Genocide run is a tedious, boring, and grindy slog that mandates you systematically root out and kill every generic enemy, with the only reward being two good and challenging boss fights. By playing the game only one, and only as a pacifist, I played the game the "correct" way, as any deviation from that route will openly accuse the player of being a piece of shit, but I also played the game in a way that most directly leads to a less complex, less fulfilling, and ultimately more forgettable experience. The game really does expect you to play it both ways, genocide and pacifist, which makes all its smarmy fourth-wall accusatory statements in genocide seem pretty hollow and pathetic in the end, no? It calls into question the whole thematic premise of the story, the whole metafictional element, and once that's gone all that really remains is some cute characters, memorable iconography, and banger music, which is all fine in its own right but not really something I'd consider a titan of the medium. It winds up feeling like a pale shadow of both Homestuck -- less expansive, less ambitious, less complex -- and its more oblique moral choice metacommentary forefather, Spec Ops The Line, which tied its question of the player's ability to choose good or evil within the rigid confines of a game to a real world soldier's ability to choose good or evil within the rigid confines of the military structures that guide them. (Spec Ops The Line is very Ender's Game in that regard.)

Again, though, it's been 10 years since I played it, so I might have forgotten some key component of what impressed me so much back then.

[gaydogmarriage]

alhaitham is such a lying liar who lies dude. acting like he and the sumeru boys gang have always been besties since forever. "that's how it's always been with the four of us" - man who has barely spoken to most of these people before he decided to team up with them to overthrow the government and regularly skips social gatherings with them. yeah right buddy ok

[lohstandfound]

hm.... exploring jake as nonbinary/agender who very much performs the act of masculinity because that is what is expected of him and coming to terms that he doesn't have to be, maybe he doesn't have to force himself into that mould

[mikuyuuss]

It's such a horrible time for me to be exploring my love for fashion when the trend right now is colorless basic asylum aesthetic 😭😭 You can't even wear something with a bit of color without people making fun of you, and YET basic people have the gal to act like they are the ones being oppressed saying "Everyones trying to be unique nowadays! I love being basic so I don't have to impress everyone!☺️☺️☺️"

First of all not everyone's trying to dress up to impress everyone. I'm sorry that I actually just want to express myself while YOU only follow trends. Being basic is literally the socially acceptable norm that was imposed on a lot of people. I HATE THIS SOCIETYYY

[dennisboobs]

plain and simple i am not going to be able to remain in this fandom long-term if i have to keep putting disclaimers on every single one of my posts that say i don't condone dennis' bad, bad actions and that i am in fact aware he's got a history of sexual assault and dubious/nonconsent. the entire gang has done heinous shit. why is dennis the only one who needs to be treated like this? if some rando wants to post about how dennis is pookie pie that doesn't automatically mean they're blind to his crimes. every single member of the gang is a piece of shit. that's kind of the point.

draw dennis with cat ears who give a shit

[raiseupyourbat]

Someone being extremely annoying in the replies of my flowey and clover gif and I'm running out of patience 😭

[flovverworks]

i need to talk about akira & romance more often. for me. instead of just talking about ships i like<3